Eagles' Chip Kelly still not ready to make call on starting quarterback (With Videos)

By BOB GROTZ

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

PHILADELPHIA -- It seemed like a harmless question. After about a month of practice, is anyone emerging as if he could be the No. 1 quarterback of the Eagles?

It won't be the last time Chip Kelly has to answer that question.

"Why do we need to name a starting quarterback in May?" Kelly said. "We're going to take the full amount of time that we have to make a thorough evaluation of what we do. When you make big decisions like that, I don't think you want to make a rash decision. You want to give everybody the opportunity to see what they do."

That's the condensed version of Kelly's retort. The Eagles' head coach wants to evaluate Michael Vick, Nick Foles, Dennis Dixon and Matt Barkley in live situations.

There would have been no argument had the Eagles drafted E.J. Manuel, who before the lottery said the Birds, Buffalo Bills, New York Jets and Cleveland Browns were on his trail. The Bills took him off the board with the 16th overall pick. It would have been obvious who the guy was if the Eagles picked him up.

It's tough to gauge where the quarterbacks are on the depth chart because only one practice a week has been open. The locker room is closed, too.

But the competition for No. 1 is between Vick, who got 14 snaps with the first team Tuesday, and Foles, who got eight. The previous week Foles seemed to have gotten most of the first-team snaps.

To dismiss the first portion of the quarterback competition makes you wonder if the Eagles are fearful of hurting someone's feelings. It hardly would be a disservice to mention how well sources think Foles has been playing and how Barkley, his throwing shoulder healthy, has shown signs he has the stuff to be a No. 1 quarterback.

Vick was kept around largely because the Eagles feel he could be productive playing with a healthy offensive line. He took a pretty good beating last year whether or not he held on to the ball too long. The soon-to-be 33-year-old Vick has made some amazing throws in practice that have blown away teammates and coaches.

Dixon has been good, too, according to teammates and sources. Basically he's the model coaches use when they evaluate practice film. In the open practices the Oregon product looks like he's been playing Kelly's system his entire life.

Kelly's caution is understandable. The season opener is three months away. But it's not like he hasn't seen video of all these quarterbacks. Knowledge of the Kelly system, which to date is what the offseason has been about, is pretty important, too.

"We haven't done anything except we've had three days of voluntary mini-camp before the draft, and today was our seventh OTA," Kelly said Tuesday. "So none of us have had any thoughts of 'hey, we've got to get a guy named by a certain point in time.' It will play itself out. It will play itself out over the course of time when we've had an opportunity to make a thorough evaluation.

"It is a big decision. When you make a big decision, you have to take your time and let it play itself out on the field."

At the end of the day, the quarterback who gives the Eagles the best chance to win is going to be No. 1. The guys who know Kelly insist that's the way he operates.